South Africa's National Parks: Overview of the Kruger Malaise Program
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South Africa’s National Parks:
Overview of the Kruger Malaise Program
Michelle van der Bank1 Michelle D’Souza2, Ryan Rattray1,Paul Hebert2
1 The African Centre for DNA Barcoding, Department of Botany & Plant Biotechnology, University of Johannesburg, PO Box 524 Auckland Park, 2006
2 Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
National Parks • Megadiverse country with three biodiversity hotspots • A Protected Areas Network - 1,527 National Parks, nature reserves, wilderness areas, Heritage sites • 19 National Parks (selected on affordability of land rather than on the biological diversity within them)
Plants - Gap Analysis
What is the degree to which the endemic flora is
conserved within the country’s Protected Areas Network?
Only 67% of the flora is protected
within the protected areas
network, of which 80% are of low
conservation concern.
Plants - Gap Analysis
Only 47% of the country has been well sampled Large gaps in availability of DNA sequences
(39% available)
What is the situation regarding insects?
Insect Diversity
Shortage of data on African insect species richness
Last comprehensive count on insect species for southern Africa
published in 1995 (Scholtz & Chown) – 43,565 species
Registered
projects in
National
Parks on
invertebrates
Kruger Malaise Program (KMP)
Map from Chadwick et al., (2013)
KMP - Aim & Objectives
The KMP aims to examine pattern of variation in species diversity and biomass of arthropod
communities in KNP by coupling a year-long sampling program (weekly collections) with
subsequent DNA barcode analysis of the specimens.
1 To show that DNA barcoding can enable rapid, low-cost evaluations of the
species composition of arthropod communities in National Parks
2 To quantify seasonal and spatial patterns of variation in arthropod
biomass in Kruger National Park
3 To provide baseline data on arthropod community structure and species
diversity in Kruger National Park to evaluate future changes
To provide detailed information on species
4 distributions to help South Africa meet its reporting obligations
under the CBD
KMP – The Team
Ryan Rattray, Michelle D’Souza, Zandisile Shongwe
Ross Stewart Danny Govender
KMP – Deployment of malaise traps
JULY 2018: Collect first batch of 194
samples (24/26 traps)
MAY 2018: Deployed 26 malaise traps (22 sections
across 11/15 vegetation types
KMP – First Results • On average 8.1 (+ 0.27) samples per site • + 475 specimens per sample = Estimated 642,200 specimens for programme
KMP – Sanger Sequence Recovery & Quality
• 95 Specimens from 24 traps analysed (2,280)
• 83% of specimens generated a sequence
• 77% had sequences >500bp resulting in OTU
assignment
17%!
6%! 500+ bp
1-499 bp
0 bp
77%!
• Sequencing success ranged between 66-96%
across sitesKMP – Number of OTUs recovered
• 768 unique OTUs
• On average 49 OTUs
(36-63) OTUs per
trap with 24 (12-35)
OTUs unique
Number of OTUs (black circles), total OTUs (solid bars) and unique OTUs (faded bars)KMP – Number of families identified = 117
1
2
3 4
5
Five most OTU rich families: 1. Cecidomyiidae (56 OTUs)
2. Ceratopogonidae (49 OTUs) Diptera
3. Chironomidae (44 OTUs)
4. Cicadellidae (44 OTUs) - Hemiptera
5. Platygastridae (37 OTUs) - HymenopteraKMP – Estimated number of OTUs
Kruger Na*onal Park Magaliesburg
iii
Species accumulation curve for arthropods collected in KNP and Magaliesburg grassland. Solid line represents the specimen-based
rarefaction curve while the dashed line segment extrapolates the curve to double the observed sample size. Shaded area indicates
the 95% confidence intervals (200 replications) and the solid dot represents the observed species richness.
• Preliminary OTU accumulation curve indicates 60% of estimated 1,915 (+50) UTUs still needs
to be sampled
• If compared to Magaliesberg and correct it to similar specimen numbers the total estimate
for KNP is approximately 6,000 OTUs
• Number of described species in South Africa +44,000
• Through this program we could potentially uncover
14% of the known diversity in a single yearKMP - Summary
Overall, the sequencing success rate indicates that samples are being
collected appropriately with minimal specimen and DNA degradation
during transport
With only 2280 specimens sequenced, high diversity (768 unique
OTUs) has been uncovered indicating both significant diversity in
Kruger National Park as well as variation in diversity across traps
in the park
• November 2018
• February 2019
• May 2019Global Spore Sampling Project (GSSP)
• Project managed by University of Helsinki
• Network involves 50 confirmed sampling locations that covers all continents
• Start of project: 01 Oct 2018Acknowledgements
Thank you!
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